Trump expected to pick investor Wilbur Ross as US commerce secretary

WASHINGTON, Nov 29 (Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Donald Trump is expected to name Wilbur Ross, a billionaire known for his investments in distressed industries, to head the Commerce Department, a Republican source familiar with the decision told Reuters on Tuesday.

Duties: oversee the Executive Office of the President, serve as the president's right-hand man

Priebus' former job: Chairman of the Republican National Committee

Bio:Priebus, 44, got his law degree from the University of Miami in 1998. He worked his way up through the ranks of the Republican Party, becoming the Wisconsin Party Chairman in 2007, then general counsel to the National Committee in 2009, and finally its chairman in 2011. Priebus helped launch Wisconsinites House Speaker Paul Ryan and Gov. Scott Walker to national prominence over the last several years. He has two young children with his wife, Sally.

Duties: serve as senior counselor to the president,shape the administration's political strategy

Bannon's former jobs: chairman of the alt-right news site Breitbart, CEO/chief strategist of the Trump campaign

Bio: Bannon, 62, graduated from Harvard Business School in 1983, and made much of his fortune as a Goldman Sachs banker and a longtime movie and TV producer. Since 2011, he has led Breitbart News, the far-right website espousing anti-establishment white nationalist positions, particularly on issues like immigration and trade. Bannon has two 21-year-old daughters, whose mother accused him of domestic abuse and anti-Semitic comments during their divorce proceedings in 1996. He pleaded not-guilty, and the charges were dropped. He has another ex-wife, as well.

Reactions: Bannon's appointment set off a firestorm of controversy, with critics pointing to what they considered racially charged, bigoted rhetoric used on Breitbart under Bannon's leadership.

Duties: act as the country's chief law enforcement officer, represent the US in court cases, provide the Executive Branch with formal and informal legal counsel and advice

Sessions' former job: senator from Alabama

Bio:Sessions, 69, was born and raised in Alabama, got his law degree from the University of Alabama in 1973, and served in the Army Reserve for 13 years. President Ronald Reagan nominated him as a US attorney in 1981, then he was elected as Alabama's attorney general in 1994, and was first elected to the Senate in 1996. He is currently serving his fourth term. Sessions and his wife, Mary Blackshear, have three children and 10 grandkids.

Bio:Flynn, 58, joined the Army as a second lieutenant in military intelligence when he graduated from the University of Rhode Island in 1981. Serving at home and abroad, Flynn worked his way up the ranks of the armed forces, eventually becoming the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency in 2012. The lieutenant general retired from the position in 2014. A registered Democrat, Flynn became an early supporter of Trump's, advising the president-elect on national security matters during the campaign. He and his wife, Lori, have two sons.

Reactions:Flynn has been criticized for being anti-Islamic, for his questionable business ties to Turkey's increasingly authoritarian president, for what some see as his overly positive views toward Russia, and for promoting conspiracy theories on Twitter during Trump's campaign. He was also accused of being too hawkish when he was DIA director, which is why a former Pentagon official alleged Flynn was forced out of the agency.

Bio: Pompeo, 52, graduated first in his class from West Point in 1986, then served as a cavalry officer in the Army. After returning from active duty, Pompeo graduated from Harvard Law School in 1994, where he served as an editor of the Harvard Law Review. Pompeo moved to Kansas, where he founded and helmed aerospace and oil manufacturing companies. He has been the US Representative for Kansas's 4th congressional district since 2011. The tea-party-aligned House member originally supported Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida in the GOP presidential primary, but eventually endorsed Trump once the business mogul secured the nomination. He and his wife, Susan, have a son, Nicholas.

Bio: Haley, 44, was born to Indian immigrant parents in South Carolina, where she graduated from Clemson University with a degree in accounting in 1994. She worked at Exotica International, an upscale women's clothing firm her mother, Raj Randhawa, founded that became a multi-million dollar business (which the family retired in 2008). Haley ousted an incumbent for a South Carolina House of Representatives seat in 2004, and was reelected for two more terms. The state then elected her its first female governor in 2010, and doubled down in the 2014 election. Haley and her husband Michael, a captain in the Army National Guard, have two teenage children.

Reactions: Some diplomats criticized Haley for her lack of experience on the world stage since she has never held a position in the federal government. Democratic senators said she would get a "thorough" confirmation hearing, but that they would give her fair consideration.

DeVos' former job: chair of the nonprofit American Federation for Children

Bio: DeVos, 58, graduated from Calvin College in 1979, held various leadership positions in the Michigan Republican Party before becoming its chairwoman from 1996 to 2000. President George W. Bush appointed her to the board of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in 2004, which she served on until 2010. DeVos has also served on various charity and company boards that she and her husband, Dick, an heir to the Amway fortune, founded, including the Windquest Group, which invests in clean energy and manufacturing. In 2009, she became the chair of the American Federation for Children, a nonprofit that aims to expand the use of school vouchers allowing students to use public funds to attend private schools. The DeVos' have four children and five grandchildren.

Reactions: While proponents of school vouchers have predictably lauded Trump's pick, its opponents have lambasted DeVos, arguing that the programs weaken public schools and fund private schools at taxpayers' expense. Teachers' unions have similarly criticized her for not understanding the public school landscape since she sent her children to private schools.

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Ross, 78, a staunch supporter of Trump and an economic adviser, has helped shape the Trump campaign's views on trade policy, blaming the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico and the 2001 entry of China into the World Trade Organization for causing massive U.S. factory job losses.

"I think there's a big difference between the impact of trade agreements on corporate America and the impact on Mr. and Mrs. America," Ross told CNBC in an interview earlier this year. "Corporate America has adjusted to them by investing lots of capital offshore."

Ross' connections to Trump date back to 1990, when as a turnaround expert for Rothschild and Co he worked on behalf of bondholders to help engineer a restructuring of hundreds of millions of dollars in debt owed on Trump's Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

In 2002, by then in charge of his own private equity firm, Ross formed International Steel Group to consolidate several bankrupt steelmakers, including Bethlehem Steel, Acme Steel and LTV Steel. He sold the company in a $4.5 billion deal two years later to Mittal Steel.

Ross retains a stake in what is now part of the world's largest steel company, Arcelor Mittal, and sits on its board of directors.

BUSINESS INTERESTS COULD POSE QUESTIONS

His various business interests, which also include automotive components and textiles, could make avoiding conflicts of interest a complicated prospect as the head of an agency with broad influence over trade cases and U.S. industrial policies.

Arcelor Mittal has benefited from several recent anti-dumping and anti-subsidy duties imposed by the Commerce Department against a wide range of steel products from China, South Korea, Japan, Britain, Turkey and other countries. Those have helped lift domestic steel prices, boosting the company's bottom line.

Ross may also face questions from lawmakers over the January 2006 Sago coal mine disaster in West Virginia that killed 12 miners in an explosion and collapse. Owned by a subsidiary of one of his companies, International Coal Group, the mine had been cited for more than 200 safety violations

International Coal was sold for $3.4 billion in 2011 to No. 2 U.S. coal miner Arch Coal, which filed for bankruptcy protection in January amid plummeting coal prices.

He could be questioned as well over a $2.3 million fine his firm agreed to pay in August to the Securities and Exchange Commission to settle accusations it did not properly disclose some fees that it charged investors.

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In this June 7, 1995 file photograph, Donald Trump is seen above the floor of the New York Stock Exchange after taking his flagship Trump Plaza Casino public in New York City. Trump Entertainment Resorts Inc., based in Atlantic City, New Jersey, filed for Chapter 11 protection on Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2009, in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New Jersey. Trump and his daughter Ivanka resigned from the company's board Friday, Feb. 13, 2009, after growing frustrated with bondholders. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens,File)

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Developer Donald Trump displays a copy of his net worth during his announcement that he will seek the Republican nomination for president, Tuesday, June 16, 2015, in the lobby of Trump Tower in New York. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)